Pagina's

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Remember Flounder the fish from The Little Mermaid? He was the inspiration for this marble :)

Watermarble with Orly Lemonade and Snowcone over one coat of Snowcone. The blue basecolor makes it look like a greenish yellow (that was not my intention). I love how the colors combine!

See? Flounder is so cute. I don't get why he's called Botje ('Little bone') in the Netherlands tho. (Misschien naar het soort vis, Bot, maar Botje is helemaal geen bot!) The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite childhood movies. I should watch it again sometime soon!

Another pic of the marble, this time in the shade (the first pic is taken in dim sunlight).

This is one of my favorites so far. I seem to get a hang of it more and I really enjoy doing marbles! The only thing I don't like, is the cleanup afterwards lol!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Last week, someone suggested that I could do a Stampabilities feature of light colors over black, so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it was a huge disaster and I didn't have time to redo this week's 'edition' over white so now I'm stuck with a crappy week of Stampabilities. I'm sorry, but light colors over black just doesn't really work imo.. *sigh*

I hope you'll excuse the crappy version this week, I'll be back with stamping over white next week!

As you can see, you can't see anything. The basecolor is too shiny, making it even less possible to look at what I've stamped on my nails. The only color showing up a bit is Moody Blue, even though it doesn't look like Moody Blue, but like a murky bluish color. *sigh* It's just not working for me..

Well at least we know now that these don't really show up over a black base xD!

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over Wet n Wild Black Creme with Catrice Matt Top Coat. Isn't that amazing? I thought I was going to love the shiny version more, but I definitely like the matte version better.

The duochrome/multichrome effect of the flakies doesn't disappear the least when you put a matte topcoat on it! I love it. It makes it look like scales or something. Prettay!

A full review on Catrice Matt Top Coat will follow in the next couple of weeks :)

Be sure to enter my OPI Damone Roberts 1968 giveaway by filling out the form in this post!

A product in this post was given to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Todays color is a little out of my box so to say, but I actually really liked it when I put it on!

OPI A True Ab-Original, four coats in daylight. A True Ab-Original is a coraly pink with silver and magenta shimmer. This isn't a color I usually pick out, but I saw it at a blogsale and thought I'd give it a shot. I actually really like this color! I think it's because it's not a straight coral or straight pink.

And a picture with flash to show the shimmer. Pretty eh? The polish itself was pretty sheer though, so I needed four coats for opacity, and I think that's a bit much.. So next time I wear this, I think I'll try some kind of nude polish underneath it as underwear (I learned this from L8B on MUA hehehe).

Friday, November 26, 2010

A quickie today, so many things to do! I'm reorganizing my room a bit, giving it a more "home-y" feel.. I have to sort out a whole box filled with old friendship books (from when I was like, 7?), old agenda's, prizes/certificates that I got from diving and a ton more. I think it's enough to keep me busy all morning ;)

For today I have a konadicure that I did last week and since I really like silver and black combinations, I thought I'd share.

Barielle Night Moves stamped with Wet n Wild Black Creme and imageplate M64. Silver and Black is a golden combination with me, and so is this one. I had a little bit of trouble transferring the stamp good enough to get straight lines, but I still like how it turned out!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Hidden Treasure is hiding for a lot of nail polish lovers, but I am one lucky bastard and I've had it for some time now! It's flakie galore in a bottle really.. I posted about it earlier when I wore it over Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto.

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, one coat over one coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme. Awesomeeeeeee! I have to admit that when I look at the bottle, I'm kinda like 'meh'. I have that with more of my flakie polishes, because it just doesn't appeal to me from the other side of the glas..

But then, when I put it on, it's like *haaaaaalelujah!* The main color of the flakies is orange, but when you tilt your hand just the tiniest little bit, you'll see yellow, gold and green pop up! It's so awesome to look at. This is over black, which is probably the color that gives it the most *pop* in my opinion (though I have to say that it's pretty amazing over pretty much every (dark) color!)

You can see the colorchanging in this closeup pretty well, this picture shows every color that shows up when you wear Hidden Treasure.. *gasps* cool, eh?

Application is a little tricky; Sally Hansen's brush is huge and not that easy to work with. It takes on way too much polish, so you have to scoop that off before you put on the flakies over your basecolor..

Also, while removing these flakies (or others, for that matter), be sure to whipe off the polish to your tip. Do not scrub this polish towards your cuticles! The flakies will get stuck and it's almost impossible to get them off when they're stuck..

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Today I have a awesome silver polish for you that I felt I *needed* after seeing swatches from Angie and I don't regret ordering this baby at all.

Barielle Night Moves, three coats in daylight. Night Moves is a stunning silver foil. I don't think it's the most unique polish out there, but it sure as hell is an eyecatcher!

I needed three coats for opacity, since the formula was a little on the thin side, but they were easy to apply and builded up to this stunning silver. I can't wait to wear this when the sun is out more, I think it might be able to turn some heads in sunlight hehe.

Barielle can be bought at www.barielle.com and at Ulta. They're having a 20% off sale on the website til 28th of November. They also still have the '2 + 1 free' deal and there's a free shipping deal when you buy for $ 50 or more. Pretty awesome deal if you ask me!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

How are you all doing? I've heard it's almost Thanksgiving, are you looking forward to it? Today I have a little gem for you that I discovered when I was shopping my stash and I totally forgot that it was so pretty!

Essie Swing Velvet, three coats in daylight. I really don't know how to label this color. It looks like a vampy red in my picture, but it has a hint of purple too that doesn't show up in my pics. I love this color. It's darker in low light, but more red in full sunlight. I was surprised that I had almost forgotten about this baby.

Application was good. Essie polishes tend to be a little thinner than my liking, but this one applied very well. It took me three to get the color opaque but the color was so stunning that I didn't mind :)

Monday, November 22, 2010

It has been a couple of days, but I had a migraine that came up on Thursday night and didn't want to lie down until Saturday morning.. I've been exhausted the past two days, but the migraine is gone so I guess I'm back :) I hope you had a better weekend than I did! *plans a shopping trip and sushi in the next week to make this week better*

This week's Stampabilities: Random OPI's. I randomly grabbed four from my Helmer and tried them for stamping. They all show up pretty good, but these are not "WOW" for me. They're all a bit muted on the nail and on the paper, but they are clearly visible and work for stamping. I was surprised that You Don't Know Jacques shows up this well!

I'm sorry the lighting isn't the best, it's been a bit of a pain to take proper pictures.. I hope there will be better light next week (although there are weatherpeople saying it will be snowing next week!) so I can get better pics :)

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

So yesterday I went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it was awesome! Seriously, I've been sucked in by the movie all 146 mins of it and for someone with a concentration level as I have, that's telling you something. I'm sooo easily distracted. I won't tell you what happens, since it's way better to watch the movie yourself, but if you're in doubt: don't doubt, just go watch it! It's my favorite movie so far, for one because they stuck to the stories in the book and second because it was really a great movie - acting, effects, the whole setting..

Okay, so far the unrelated babbling. Now for something nailrelated: a konadicure that I did a while ago! I thought it looked fun so I want to share it with you :)

China Glaze 2Nite stamped with China Glaze LOL and imageplate M63. LOL dulled a bit after stamping, but 2Nite is still very holographic. I like the effect! It's quite subtle, but still stands out. I know I sound weird lol!

It's even better in daylight and full sunlight, so I snapped some more pictures. You see more of the rainbow irl, but my camera wouldn't capure that unless it faded away all the blue and purple in the polishes. *sigh*

And while I'm posting this, I'm thinking of the summer, when there was still a lot of sunlight.. I notice my mood is better when the sun is out, so that's a bit of a downside when it's November and the sky is mostly grey. It helps to look at these kind of pictures tho!

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your Thursday! Thanks for stopping by :)

Don't forget to enter the OPI Damone Roberts 1968 giveaway! You can read about the details and enter the giveaway here.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

How are you doing today? Last night the last Harry Potter movie showed for the first time in The Netherlands! Have you been to the midnight showing? I'm going this morning and to be honest, I'm pretty excited hehe!

Anyway, for today I have Kiko 245 for you. I don't really like the whole number thing, I accidentally bought one double because they don't have names but only numbers. Ah well. Kiko sure as hell has some really pretty colors!

Kiko 245, two coats in daylight. Kiko 245 is a gorgeous deep and dark red shimmer. I would call this carmine or maybe even bordering on maroon, but Kiko calls this shade "pearly dark ruby red". I don't agree with that, since there's nothing pearly about this shade. It's gorgeous!

Kiko 245 in lower lighting. As you can see, the color darkens to more of a brown toned vampy.

Application was soft, sweet and easy. The formula was exactly how I like it - not too thick or too thin and it went on smoothly. The polish was opaque in two quick coats.

I really like this color! I can't believe I've had some of my Kiko's for so long without even trying them. I'm going to try to grab them more often nowadays! I paid a shocking € 1,90 for this bottle and it's great value for money.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A quick NOTD post today. I wore this almost two weeks ago, I think? I loved the look, even though most of my nails were green and I had blue accent nails, but anyhow, it was all sparkle-y hehe.

Orly Enchanted Forest with CND Teal Sparkle on my pinky, middle and index, and OPI Absolutely Alice on my ring fingers (and thumbs, but I don't have a picture of that). I thought it looked pretty nice! I have to admit that I hadn't worn Absolutely Alice till then, so it was about time *hangs head in shame*

I wasn't impressed with the wear of AA though, it fell off both my thumbs on the second day I believe, so no, that was a big downside for me.

For centuries, people around the globe have been enamored with lush fabrics, rare stones and extravagant finishes. ORLY celebrates the refined glamour of porcelain, the vibrant sheen of silk, and the lush sparkle of priceless gems with Precious. Lend a sense of romance and richness to every spring ensemble by sporting lavish shades on fingertips and toes. The six lacquers in the Precious Collection signal a fresh approach to spring fashion and a renewed appreciation for the exotic workmanship, ornamental engravings, and sumptuous fabrics known to accompany the luxe life.

All ORLY Nail Lacquers including the Precious Collection are free of DBP, Toluene and all traces of Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde Resin.

The Precious Collection Lacquers will be available starting March 2011 for $7.50 each. ORLY Nail Lacquers and Treatment products are available at orlybeauty.com, Sally Beauty, Ulta and other purveyors of beauty throughout the U.S. and in over 70 countries worldwide.

I'm especially looking forward to Sapphire Silk! It seems to be an amazing dusty color from what I can see in the picture. Can't wait!

Last week someone suggested that I'd do an edition of Stampabilities on the Chanels that I have, so here it is! I also have Cosmic Violine, but I will do that one later - I think.

Stampabilities 011: Chanel. Nouvelle Vague wouldn't transfer properly from the stamp onto the paper. I have no idea why. I think the color is a bit light to stamp with, but you'll probably do fine with a dark(er) base color. Gondola was a pleasant surprise for me. Another red shimmer winner! Particulière and Paradoxal show up nicely, Particulière being slightly better visible than Paradoxal. I expected that to be the other way around..

Thanks for the suggestion, Silva!

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A real quickie today - I'm about to crash into bed (it's 0.45 when I'm typing this) after celebrating my sisters birthday. I ate some delicious chocolate pie and way too many yummy other things, but I enjoyed myself (and my sister did too). This is one of the polishes that Rachel picked up for me for our awesome megaswap!

Wet n Wild Rustic, three coats in daylight. Rustic is what the name suggests: a true rust color! It's filled with bronze shimmer, making it pretty to look at. The color in my pic is a little too light - imagine it a tad more brown (and thus a tad darker).

Application was a bit tricky for me because of the really short brush handle - it's so short and tiny! The formula on the polish was actually pretty good, so I have no complaints about the polish itself.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

As I said yesterday, I reached 650 followers. I know I already thanked you for following me, but I decided to do a giveaway for my readers as well! This is the prize:

A brand new bottle of OPI Damone Roberts 1968. This color is sold out! But one (1) lucky winner will receive this prize. So what do you have to do to get a chance to win this pretty polish? Just fill in the form below! Please note: This giveaway is open only to followers of Nailswatches via Google Friend Connect (GFC).

This giveaway is now closed! I will announce the winner in the week of December 6th, 2010.

This giveaway will be open till December 6th 2010 23.59 GMT+01:00. This giveaway is open internationally, so everyone can join!

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post :) Entries in the comment section will not be counted.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A while ago, I bought some polishes from Angie and she put this polish in as an extra. How sweet!! This isn't a color I would have picked out myself, but after trying it, I have to say: I really like it!

Zoya Robyn, three coats in daylight. Robyn is a bright blue creme. It works really good with my skintone, it really pops. I can see this being an awesome base for nailart, too.

Application was good. The polish was opaque in three easy coats. I did mess it up a bit on one finger, but that was my own fault lol. The polish dried quickly as well.

I wanna have some nice weather around here so I can feel like wearing this color! It felt a bit odd when I put it on, being all grey and rainy outside. But it's definitely a winner for me. Thanks Ange!

Andddd I just saw that I reached 650 followers! Jeez! I never would have thought that I would make it to 50 followers (hell, having 5 followers made me jump up and down), let alone 650. Thank you so much for visiting my little blog. I know I haven't been around that much the last couple of months and that I wasn't really a nice person when I was (most of the time). Even though the sun isn't shining anymore outside, I'm starting to feel a little better and my mood is lifting, step by step. I want to say thank you to all of you who have sent me messages and emails. They mean a lot to me. *takes out the tissues*

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Last week, I showed you Barielle Get Mauve-ing and today I have the konadicure that I did over it afterwards. I like these colors as a background for konads like this!

Barielle Get Mauve-ing stamped with Wet n Wild Black Creme and imageplate M71. Because Get Mauve-ing is such a soothing color, I really liked the lacey stamping on it. I like those more on the dusty, muted looking polishes somehow.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

When there was still sun around (this sounds dramatic, haha), I picked out one of my newest China Glaze polishes: 2Nite. Here she is today!

China Glaze 2Nite, three coats over Aqua Base in sunlight. 2Nite is a gorgeous light blue (but with a hint of periwinkle) holographic polish with the full-on rainbow effect in sunlight. It was one of the polishes that I picked up at the Beauty Salon Dimensions Fair in September and I certainly don't regret it.

Application over Nfu Oh's Aqua Base was good. I didn't have bald spots or patchiness because I used Aqua Base as a basecoat underneath this pretty. The dryingtime was very quick.

Overcast, but you can see the holo way better! Nice, eh?

It's part of the China Glaze OMG Collection for spring 2008 and is as far as I know, discontinued. You can still find bottles on eBay and at some etailers and I even managed to snatch a couple bottles at the Dutch China Glaze stand on the BSD fair.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Today I have a polish for you that I wore as a notd recently. I saw this over at Michèle's blog and told her I wanted it, not realizing that I was already getting it.. Haha! Anyway, here is Ciaté Silhouette.

Ciaté Silhouette, two coats with a coat of China Glaze FFWD topcoat. The polish doesn't need topcoat to be shiny! Silhouette is a gorgeous vampy red shimmer. It looks on the brown side in the bottle, but on the nail it's mostly a very vampy red.

The application on this one was great: the polish went on smoothly and was easily opaque in two coats.

You can buy Ciaté at their website for £ 9 per bottle. They are having a 25% off sale until 09/11/2010 (ends today!) when you use code ciate25mc.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Another round of Stampabilities! This week I picked some Essies from my stash to see how they work for stamping.

Stampabilities 010: Random Essies. They all show up pretty good, but I was a bit disappointed with Mink Muffs. I hoped that Mink Muffs would be more visible that it is. The other three were pleasant surprises, especially Midnight Cami and Angora Cardi. I can see myself using those for future stamping purposes ;) The image is clickable, I left it bigger since I only have one image to show you this week because of the bad lighting

I still love picking polishes and seeing what they do when they are used as stamping polishes. Some polishes are colors that I would have never thought of that they would work!

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Hope you're enjoying the weekend! Today I have one of the polishes from the MAC Nail Trend collection by Jin Soon for 2010 for you. Jessika was so sweet to send some polishes over, thanks hun!

MAC Jade Dragon, two coats in daylight. Jade Dragon is a gorgeous dark green shimmer. It's not as flat as my picture shows it, the light outside was doing funny things, so sorry about that! It's a very pretty shade, although I wouldn't call this entirely unique.. I think this must have a dupe somewhere.

The application was flawless. The formula on Jade Dragon was like a dream - it went on smoothly, dried very quickly and the polish itself was just easy to work with. It was well worth my $$!

Oh and before I forget, I didn't have any staining. I heard some people complaining about that on MUA, but I used my regular basecoat and was fine when I took the polish off :)

Saturday, November 6, 2010

It's weekend! Let's hope the weather is being nice so we can go outside.. Yesterday was a sad rainy day. I have one of the Barielles for you that I got at the sale recently!

Barielle Get Mauve-ing, two coats in indirect sunlight. Get Mauve-ing is a gorgeous mauve taupe creme that I found to be very nice in combination with my skintone.

I think I could have done one coat and be fine with it, but I did two out of habit.

This was the third Barielle bottle that I got that leaked during transport. The neck of the bottle had dried polish over it, sticking up and breaking off when I opened the bottle. The brush was wonky, with outstanding hairs and hairs that were longer than the rest of the hairs in the brush. Because the bottle leaked polish in transport, the polish got thicker and was really thick when I applied it.

I thought it was bad luck when two of my bottles leaked the first time (Berry Blue and A Bouquet For Ava), but now I'm concerned the caps aren't being put on tightly enough. I hope I just had bad luck and my other bottles will be fine.

Application was great! The formula was easy to work with and the polish dried quickly. I do think the Essie brush is a little on the thin side; I prefer my brushes to be a little wider, but other than that, I have no complaints!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A short post today since I'm having computer troubles and my laptop doesn't allow me to have more than one window open - which is really frustrating. I hope I can fix it tomorrow, I didn't have luck today. Ah well. Today I have a long time lemming for you that I finally picked up in August I believe.

OPI You Don't Know Jacques, three coats in daylight. You Don't Know Jacques is a taupe creme. It's loved by many, but I don't like it. Let me tell you why: the color is lighter than I thought it would be. I like 'darker' taupes like Catrice Lost In Mud and this one is lighter.. According to the swatches I've seen before, it should be darker than what I own.

Second: the formula was horrible. It was extremely watery at some points and it contained some lumps (I don't know a better word to say this, sorry), making it very hard for me to apply. Although the formula was mostly on the (really) thin side, the drying time wasn't quick so of course I dented the polish before I could snap a pic.

No, this one's not for me. How much I hate it to post something like this post, I want to get my opinion on this one out. Maybe I got an off bottle, who knows. I just know that I will probably not be grabbing this in the future to polish my nails with.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

It's been a little while since this baby was released and caused a true frenzy in the nailpolish community and it's certainly one of the shades that I love a lot. I find myself wearing this one quite often, so I would say it's worth every penny ;)

Chanel Paradoxal, two coats in daylight. Paradoxal is a gorgeous taupe with a very strong purple hue (or purple-ish taupe) packed with hidden shimmer that only shows up in sunlight or under artificial lighting. The shimmer is mostly purple and pink, but you can also discover some blue in there if I'm not mistaken. This shade is absolutely gorgeous!

The application was flawless and the formula was superb. The first time I used it, I was honestly impressed with the formula. I have some more Chanels and lets just say that some don't share the same kind of formula.

I love this shade for fall, but I also wore it during the summer so I would say it's good for every season (not that I pay attention to seasonal colors, but okay). I recently saw some bottles at the local Douglas and Ici Paris XL so if you want it, you can still grab it when you're in The Netherlands.

There is a deadon dupe though: BarryM Dusky Mauve. Michèle wore it recently when I was wearing Paradoxal and you couldn't possibly see the difference between them!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Misa: Cherry Glazed, Dirty Sexy Money, Sorry Just Can't Help It and Toxic Secution. They're all pretty pigmented! Stamping transforms Toxic Seduction in kind of a greyish green with only a hint of sparkle, so it doesn't look like the normal color of Toxic Seduction when it's on your nails.

They show up really nice on the nails as well, so it's another win this week! Jeesh, will it ever stop? ;) I'm really happy to be finding so many new polishes to stamp with, so I'm a happy camper.

Sorry for the dark picture, clouds and rain here in The Netherlands, but you can see that they show up almost identical on the paper and on the nail.

Hope this helps some of you!

PS: I'm sorry if some of my images disappear and are replaced by the Photobucket picture.. I didn't get a warning that I was close to my limit so I just discovered that I used too much bandwith this month. I hope to figure it out later today!!

If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.